I created this blog site to expose the scam artists, crooks, and their tactics that prey on honest hard working people on craigslist. I encourage you to share your stories and experiences with other people so that we may better serve the craigslist community, by making it a safer place.

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How to Spot a Scam

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Beware of Frank Edwards

I replied to a Craiglist post for an English tutor, and this is the response I recieved: HelloAm Frank an international model from Spain,my 16 yrs old Step-daughter will be coming for a vacation in the U.S,and I want her to be busy throughout because she is a lil bit playful.Therefore, I just want to know maybe she can always come to you and be her English tutor so she can learn from you. If possible,please get back to me with the cost of your teaching for the month,i mean for the whole Month, excluding Sat and Sun.She will be coming to your home or Meet in the City Library for 2 hours each day, I have scheduled a CHAUFFEUR that will always drive her down to your place. My step-daughter's name is Venus Simpson , I want to know the total amount for an hour each for the total month.

So that i can arrange for the payments.If its going to work, Kindly get back to me with the total amount for the month and your mailing address,i will be waiting to see your mail soon,bye for now.Regards,Frank Edwards

The bad spelling and grammar bothered me, especially since the original post was very nicely written. His claim to be a model also bothered me (why, of all places, would a Spanish model send his step-daughter to the small city I live in?) Also, why is he willing to hire a "CHAUFFEUR" rather than have me drive to the location, the "City Library," and which library anyway - there are at least a half-dozen different branches! In addition, like an idiot, I sent my resume as an attachment - so he has my mailing address and has no need to ask for it, unless he doesn't know how to open attachments (I hope). This also suggests that I am dealing with a complete fraud. I marked the original post as spam on Craigslist and have no intent to reply to the email. A Google search turns up no hits on the name or email, so this must be a new identity. I hope others who are suspcious read this and don't fall for this old scam.

5 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I got the same exact email! All I told him, however, was that I am no longer tutoring, because I actually was a tutor back home. That is very interesting, especially because I just started using Craigslist, so it must be a fraud. How do they get our emails though?

I GOT THIS EMAIL AND IM NOT A TUTOR maybe they have a program that send email to anyone who post in the lessons section on cl

Hello Tutor

Am Mrs Pati Olinger.I would like to secure your service for my daughter, Her name is Olympia and she is 14yrs old so i want her to be busy in the time of the day because we just moved in from United Kingdom. i have decided to let her attend your lesson pending the time i wll get a good sch for her ,so she will be coming 2hours in a day and three times in a week(10am to 12pm or at any of your convinient time given to us) in the morning or time that you will be chance. so i want you to calculate the cost of 2 hour per day for Monday, Wednesday & Friday or any of your convinient time for the whole 2 Month and send me the total cost ,My husband company will be paying you Check or wire the money to your account.so get back to me with your cost for the October to November. I have someone that will always drive him down to your house Kindly get back to me with your full details below...My company will be paying with CHECK..

1.YOUR CHARGE FOR AN HOUR FOR TWO MONTHS....2.TOTAL CHARGES FOR 2 MONTHS.TAUGHT 3 TIMES PER WEEK..

I just received this today and I do not advertise on Craiglist and have never posted anything. But I do have a tutoring website. I'm assuming they want my bank info so they can "deposit" the fees in myu account.

I received a closely related set of emails responding to my tutoring ad on Sacramento craigslist. Tip offs for me were a change of email address (and name spelling: Micheal -> Michael), poor english, and no reference to anything I had said. After running several unsuccessful google searches with names, towns, etc. I ended up here. Kind of funny - kind of not...

EMAIL 1FROM micrichiinunity007@googlemail.com

Hi,will you be available to tutor my daughter (Carie) Maths or Englishby February 2009?Richard.

EMAIL 2FROM micrichiinunity004@gmail.com

HiThanks for your reply.Am from Petersburg Florida,my 15 year olddaughter(Carie) is coming for an holiday,and she is interested inhaving Algebra Maths or English Composition lesson during herholiday.She is a middle school student.Actually,she want the lesson tostart by first week in January but i insist on Feb.So if you can beavailable for the lesson by January,no problem. She will be coming toyou for 1 hour lesson per day(3 times per week),I got a Nanny thatwill relocate to you area to take proper care of her and also there issomeone that will always drive her down to the location of thelesson.So please Kindly get back to me with:1.Your charges per hour.2.Total charges for 1 month that she will be taught one hour per dayin 3 times a week.Waiting to read from you soon.